Research News

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have devised a potential treatment against a common type of leukemia that could have implications for many other types of cancer. The new approach takes aim at a way that cancer cells evade the effects of drugs, a process called adaptive resistance.

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad have developed a method to produce controlled-release oral tablets for treating fungal infections and kala azar. The tablets were found to release the drug Amphotericin B in a sustained and controlled manner over a period of 10 days.

Although the number of women being diagnosed and dying of ovarian cancer is declining, recurrence, drug resistance and mortality remain high for women with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, the most common form of epithelial ovarian cancer. A new study in the journal eLife by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers links changes in the gene for the protein focal adhesion kinase, or FAK, to the cancer's ability to survive chemotherapy.

The remarkable ability of a small Australian sea snail to produce a colourful purple compound to protect its eggs is proving even more remarkable for its potential in a new anti-cancer pharmaceutical.

An innovative graphene-based film helps shield people from disease-carrying mosquitos, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health. The research, conducted by the Brown University Superfund Research Center, Providence, Rhode Island, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers believe that stuttering — a potentially lifelong and debilitating speech disorder — stems from problems with the circuits in the brain that control speech, but precisely how and where these problems occur is unknown. Using a mouse model of stuttering, scientists report that a loss of cells in the brain called astrocytes are associated with stuttering. The mice had been engineered with a human gene mutation previously linked to stuttering. The study(link is external), which appeared online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers insights into the neurological deficits associated with stuttering.

Anemia is normally caused due to iron deficiency, but cancers, autoimmune diseases, infections and chronic kidney diseases may also lead to anemia. This is known as anemia of inflammation.

A team of researchers from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health, and collaborating academic research institutions developed a method to measure a type of gene mutation involved in the evolution of cancer. This type of mutation, called “repeat instability,” may be useful in early cancer diagnosis. Findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras have found a way to develop non-animal models to test new cancer drugs.

Esophageal cancer or cancer of the food pipe is among common cancers that occur in India. Every year some 47,000 new cases are reported and 42,000 people die due to this cancer. Its occurrence is particularly high in the north-eastern states. It is often diagnosed late as its symptoms are not very specific and patients are treated for other causes. In such a situation, early diagnosis can help save lives.